EXETERRPG: (1, 1421) CSO, Lt. Erin Cortez / Genevieve Rhodes & Dr. Lindsay Devereaux

[Todd Holladay]

Mission: Lights, Camera….Action?
Day: 1
Stardate: 2446.01.01/2025.06.30

(Toronto, Canada - St Michaels Hospital - CSO Lt Erin Cortez/Genevieve Rhodes & Doctor Lindsay Devereaux - 1421)
 
Erin sat on the bed, tapping her knee. She was nervous but something in her had changed. She knew what she needed to do and was feeling stronger about it as every moment passed.
 
Holding her phone, she had checked that the phone call had been made and discovered it hadn't. The phone had been switched off. Closing her eyes, she sighed as she waited for the doctor.
 
~Curious, she didn't look that sick.~  Lindsay thought as she looked over the lab results. ~WBC count that high and she would have to have a systemic infection or something like a burst appendix.~
 
Lindsay knocked on the exam room door. "Ms. Rhoades… it's me, Dr. Devereaux."
 
"Come in."
 
"Your lab results came back," the redhead began.
 
"Oh? Is it bad?"
 
Lindsay put on her best "terrible news" face. "News, but  it's not good news. Your labs seem to indicate you're fighting a massive infection."
 
"But… I feel fine.. oh no." She closed her eyes again, knowing that something wasn't right. Something wasn't right at all.
 
"I'm going to take your temperature if that's alright?" Lindsay said.
 
"Sure." Erin watched her carefully. She knew her guard was up but something about this women was saying that she could trust her.
 
She took out a device that had a curved handle, rounded squarish on top. It almost looked like a particle weapon. Lindsay pointed it at her patient and activated it via a button with her thumb. In an instant the device beeped.
 
"Thirty-seven point one. Definitely not a fever," she announced, and placed the thermometer back into her lab coat pocket.
 
"I told you I feel fine. I fainted is all. "
 
"Any history of immunocompromising illnesses?" Lindsay began running through possibilities of what could make what she saw before her make sense. ~She's not tachypneic, no tachycardia, no hypotension, all her vital signs were normal.~
 
"No."
 
"Auto-immune?"
 
"No."
 
"Malignant hyper or hypothermia?"
 
"Is this really all necessary?"
 
"You've been patient with me, I know. I'm grateful for that. Your labs don't make sense, given your current condition and admitted history." Lindsay explained.
 
"I… "
 
"I would like to redraw your labs to see if there was an error," the doctor said cautiously. ~I hate having patients be poked unnecessarily.~
 
Erin went silent. She was beginning to understand what had happened. 
 
"I have to rule out any errors," the Doctor began, "the chances the labs are inaccurate…"
 
"If you need to, you can draw blood but.."
 
Honestly, Lindsay had expected a fight, a verbal discussion. She didn't expect her to acquiesce so quickly. "Oh, well, that's good," the surprise creeped into her voice.
 
"Doctor Devereaux, I don’t know the procedure here for things like this but I'm a little concerned. "
 
"Concerned about the venipuncture? Perfectly common and safe procedure…" she began.
 
"No, not that. About staying here, alone."
 
~She's not concerned about the medicine, something else is happening.~ Suspicious, now, "What's going on?"
 
"Nurse Turkelton,  I asked him to call Kyle,  he took my phone, turned it off and never called him. He keeps asking me questions,  talking about his headshots and, he…."
 
"Is he harassing you?" Lindsay asked cautiously.
 
"He keeps saying he's my number one fan and he'll look after me. He shouted at me just before… I just,  I need to get out."
 
"New plan." Lindsay said. "I draw the blood. Only this time you don't wait for the results. The moment I'm done you sign out via the AMA form, Against Medical Advice. Turn on your phone, call Kyle and make your way to the police station. File a grievance with one of the Officers there I trust a Detective O'Toole. Tell them you will  only speak with him. With you safe, and with your statement on a police report I can go after that nurse and have him relieved." 
 
"Okay. Sounds like a plan." Erin said, calmly. For once she felt strong and able. The doctor had believed her and that spoke volumes. Holding out her arm, she nodded.
 
Luckily for her patient Lindsay had paid part of her way through medical school as a phlebotomist. It didn't take her long to gather the equipment needed. She donned gloves and then applied the constricting band, wiped the site with an alcohol pad. It took mere seconds for the wetness to dry. "Ready?" Lindsay asked rhetorically. "One, two, three, poke."
 
Wincing a little as the needle went in, Erin turned her head away. "I feel sorry for him."
 
~Good, talking will distract you.~ The first tube with a serum separator had already filled most of the way. Her skilled hands switched tubes to one with the lithium heparin  additive. "How so? My father always said: He made his bed, now he has to lay in it."
 
"I mean, I'm not perfect. Genevieve is not perfect. Sorry that sounded odd but I mean that what must be going on his life that he fixated on me."
 
"Psychology is not my forte." Lindsay admitted. "Could be any number of disorders, maybe he doesn't realize it's wrong." She switched out to the final tube containing EDTA. "Maybe his aims are financial?  Sell signatures or he thinks you are his way into the biz."
 
"Either way, he could just ask rather than trying to keep me here, shouting at me and saying I upset him."
 
"Again," Lindsay finished, removed the needle, switching it out with a sterile gauze pad. "Hold here." She instructed. "I don't think he's entirely in his right mind." She took the needle and threw it in a nearby sharps container. "I got it." She said regaining control of the venipuncture site. She then wrapped her patient's arm with a small length of bright green self-adherent wrap.
 
"To be honest, I just want to get put of here and go home. That and kick Kyle's ass for leaving me." She replied with a smile. 
 
"About that." Lindsay said, she gathered all the wrappers for her equipment and threw all the unneeded rubbish away. Only then did she remove her gloves and squirt a bit of foul smelling antiseptic gel into her hands. "I have your AMA paperwork here."
 
"Okay." Erin replied, flexing her arm a little to ease the sting of where the blood had been taken.
 
The doctor handed over a clipboard with a small stack of three papers. Everything had been filled out with the name: Rhodes, Genevieve. "First page is your current tentative diagnosis, psychosomatic syncope, means you passed out due to an emotional shock. It's just off of our patient care library. It has some hints to help your recovery, manage your symptoms, things to avoid etc. That's yours to keep."
 
"Thanks." She replied, taking the paper and putting it in her bag.
 
"Your AMA form is actually two pages single sided. The first one explains all the bad things that could happen to you as a result of leaving against medical advice. Our legal team makes these include some worst case scenario so we don't get sued, so bear with me. Including but not limited to: Recurrence of the same problem, which can be a detriment to activities after the fact. Sudden loss of consciousness could secondarily cause other injuries and illness, including but not limited to: Coma, mechanical falls causing further injuries, concussion, contusions, lacerations or fractures, and other serious injuries not listed here, upto and including death. Initial here." 
 
Nodding, she listened. Part of her wanting to tell the Doctor to hurry up so she could leave.
 
"Second page, summarized says: You will not hold St. Michael's Hospital, it's Emergency Room or any of the employee's liable for performing their job to the standards set for by hospital policy, and all applicable Canadian laws. Standard good Samaritan law verbiage. Sign here."
 
Erin paused for a brief moment, pen in hand. ~sign Genevieve not Erin!~ she thought to herself as she looked at the paper and signed.
 
"Do you want a copy of this?" She asked.
 
"No thanks. If you can't trust a doctor, who can you trust?" She replied with a smile.
 
Lindsay reached into her shirt pocket, "And here's my card. If you need anything, let me know." 
 
"Am I free now, Doctor?"
 
She chuckled, "Yeah, you're free to go. Remember I won't have the proof I need to reprimand the nurse without your police report."
 
"I'll head straight to the police station. Thankyou for being so understanding."
 
"Not a problem." Lindsay said with a smile. She clutched the clipboard to her chest as her patient left the room. She steeled herself. She was not looking forward to the confrontation that was going to happen in the coming week.
 
(Reply none)
(Posted by Jackie and Todd)


“The only way to defeat fear is to tell it 'No'." No - we will not take shortcuts on the path to righteousness. No - we will not break the rules that protect us from our basest instincts. No - we will not allow desperation to destroy moral authority.” - Michael Burnham, Star Trek: Discovery

“No, I’m from Iowa, I only work in outer space.” – Adm. James T. Kirk, “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”

Todd Holladay
SGT, IA ARNG (Retired)



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